In telephony networks, it may be desirable to provide a mechanism where more than two media streams can be privately mixed and sent to a general purpose PSTN telephony device. Conventional telephony devices, such as PSTN phones, are limited in that they can only handle two different incoming media streams. If it is desirable to send more than two media streams from a local PSTN phone to a remote PSTN phone or to receive more than two media streams from the remote PSTN phone, it is necessary to use a conference bridge. However, using a conference bridge requires that all parties connected to the conference bridge hear each other.
In some instances, it may be desirable for the local PSTN phone to receive more than two media streams without requiring that the mixed media streams be delivered to all users or devices connected to the local PSTN phone. For example, if a business manager is communicating with multiple employees in the field, it may be desirable for the manager to be able to simultaneously hear multiple employees in the field. However, it may not be necessary that the employees in the field know that the manager can hear all of them or that they be able to hear each other. In another example, one user may desire to listen to music while communicating with other users but may not desire to transmit the music to the other users. In yet another example it may be desirable for an administrator or supervisor at a call center to hear multiple calls with customers, to selectively adjust features of the calls, and to prevent the customers from hearing each other. Conventional conference bridges lack the flexibility to implement these scenarios.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional meet-me conference that uses a conference bridge, which mixes and sends audio packets from all parties to all parties. In FIG. 1, a conference host or moderator 100 informs users 102 of a DID number for a conference bridge 104. Each user 102 dials the DID number for conference bridge 104 and bidirectional media streams 106 are established between each user and conference bridge 104. In this example, each user hears the audio stream of every other user. Moderator 100 can adjust volume of a connection through floor control application software. Some floor control application software even allows the moderator to selectively mute participants in the conference call for privacy purposes. However, such systems still require that the users be aware of the conference call and that audio streams from users who are not muted be presented to all other users.
Accordingly, in light of these shortcomings, there exists a long felt need for methods, systems, and computer program products for privately establishing and controlling media connections with a PSTN telephony device.